Treatment for Lung Cancer

How to Treat Lung Cancer

The depends on different factors, most important of these factors being the type of cancer (histopathologic) and the stage of the cancer

Once this is known the doctor and the patient then work together to determine a treatment plan that is suitable for the patient putting the following factors into consideration

The general health of the patient

The patient’s possible medical condition that can hamper the treatment (such as chemotherapy)

The characteristics of the tumor

With the characteristics of the lung tumor the doctor will be able to tell what group the patient belongs to, whether the patient is of high risk of cancer recurrence or low risk of it.

There are three main treatments for cancer, they are as follows:

Surgery

Surgery is the oldest treatment for cancer. When it is in its first and second stage and has not spread to other organs (metastasized) the patient could be cured by surgically removing the tumor and the nearby lymph nodes completely.
After cancer has spread, it is almost impossible to remove all the cancer cells

Lung cancer surgery is performed by a specially trained thoracic surgeon

There are two types of surgeries. The curative which is for early stage cancer that removes all the cancerous tissue and the pallative which only remove an obstruction so the airway is free just to make the patient comfortable and not necessarily removing the cancer

Surgical treatment could cause a problem to the surrounding parts which could lead to pain and infection.

Options are given by the doctor that could relief the pain and antibiotics are used to prevent infections from the wound of the surgery or elsewhere

Radiation

Radiation or radiotherapy tries to destroy or shrinks lung cancer tumors by concentrating high-energy rays on the cancer cells. This damages the molecules that makes up the cancer cells and force them to death.

Radiotherapy can either be used as main , added to surgery to kill remaining cells or kill cancer cells that have spread to other organ (metastasized)

The side effects of Radiation

As radiation is used to kill cancer cells especially in it early stage it could also kill normal healthy cells. Though with improved technology this has been curtailed and beams can now target cancer cells more accurately

Lung cancer treatment takes effect in weeks or months depending on the size of the tumor and the level of radiation and whether or not damages where done to non cancerous cells

Some common effects of radiation are: nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, hair loss, dry, irritated and sensitive skin

Chemotherapy

NSCLC and SCLC could be treated with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy refers to the administration of drugs that stop cancer cells from growing either by killing them or preventing them from dividing

Chemotherapy could be administered alone in place of surgery, or combined with radiotherapy

Several drugs have been developed for the treatment of lung cancer but the class of drugs called platinum has been found to be the best in the treatment of lung cancers

Chemo is good treatment for SCLC because the tumors are already widespread in the body when diagnosed

Survival rate of SCLC patients is greatly increased by four to five times but without it only half of it patient can survive for four months.

Chemotherapy alone cannot treat NSCLC effective except that it can be used to prolong survival in many cases when it has metastasized

Chemotherapy could be in form of pills, intravenous infusion or a combination of both. Chemo drugs are given in series referred to as cycles – over a period of weeks or months with a break in between

Side effects of Chemotherapy

The drugs used also kill healthy tissue hence it side effect. When blood cells are damaged it could result in increased susceptibility to infections and difficulties with blood clotting

Other possible effects of chemo are: hair loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue and mouth sores

Side effects of chemotherapy vary depending on the drugs and dosage used and the individual taking it

There are medications now that can prevent or cure these side effects of chemo. Though all the side effect usually disappear during recovery of the treatment or upon completion of it

Other lung cancer treatments

Researchers have continued to search for ways to improve the and eliminate most of the side effects. So they have designed targeted therapies that will only treat cancer cells without affecting normal and healthy cells

There are also lung cancer vaccines that transform cancer cells so they are no more cancerous

These targeted therapies are also known as immuno therapies because it more like it gives the immune system more power so it can fight the disease.

I hope you find this article on the helpful. I wish you the best in your fight against the deadly disease called CancerPosted byKaro ItojeLabels:No comments:Post a Comment

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